Has anyone converted a room-in-roof loft conversion to hip-to-gable?

orangecrush

Hi moneysavers!

As the title says, really!  We're house hunting and have seen a property with a room-in-roof/ velux/ whatever-you-call-it loft conversion.  We'd like to add a dormer to turn it into a proper bedroom.  Because of the size of the loft (5x5m) a dormer would essentally be hip-to-gable but have no idea how much hassle/ cost it would be.  The attached semi has done a hip-to-gable that cost around £30k, but that was starting from scratch.  So for just the dormer I'm guessing less than £30k but more than £0 I'm in the north but an expensive part of the north.  

Grateful for anyone's experiences!  Thank you

DevilDamo

Not done one personally but have designed and dealt with both the Planning and Building Regulation procedures on both.

orangecrush

DevilDamo said:

Not done one personally but have designed and dealt with both the Planning and Building Regulation procedures on both.

Thanks for the reply! There is an existing loft conversion with no building regulations certificate; I'm not sure when it was done but the estate agent is trying to find out.  So there are already proper stairs and a door, and 2 velux windows.  The roof height means we can't really use it as a bedroom, but most other houses on the street have done dormer conversions in the loft to make it a full height room for the majority of the floor space.  I'm just not sure how easy it is to do that starting from an existing conversion, particularly if building regulations have changed since it was done.  It's anyone's guess I suppose unless the estate agent can find out what the vendors had done, and when.

I'm not sure what my question is I guess I was hoping for others; experiences somewhere in between "yeah, done that, it was a doddle" or "good god, no, never again"

DevilDamo

Ok I see. Assuming there wasn’t any Planning with the conversion either so nobody knows yet as to when the works were carried out? It could potentially open up a can of worms and involve remedial action should you wish to extend and renovate it. It may be worth a call to Building Control to see what they’d advise in that situation.

orangecrush

DevilDamo said:

Ok I see. Assuming there wasn’t any Planning with the conversion either so nobody knows yet as to when the works were carried out? It could potentially open up a can of worms and involve remedial action should you wish to extend and renovate it. It may be worth a call to Building Control to see what they’d advise in that situation.

Correct.  There's no record of it on the council's planning portal,that goes back to mid 1990s.  So, either there was no planning, or it was done pre 1990s.  The estate agent are still waiting to hear back from the vendor.  If we proceed with the purchase I will def call building control - thanks!